


Seeing Stars

by freddiejoey



Category: Arthur of the Britons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:22:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24019705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freddiejoey/pseuds/freddiejoey
Summary: Going star-gazing...…...
Kudos: 1





	Seeing Stars

Seeing Stars 

When Arthur is a little boy, before Vala goes away and Kai arrives and Llud returns to live in the village as their father, his mother takes him and Lenni out to look at the starry sky on warm evenings. Not in any scholarly fashion as Brother Amlodd will later do - though Vala, as a well-schooled Roman girl, certainly knows all the constellations and will sometimes tell rousing tales of vain Queen Cassiopeia or Orion’s two hunting dogs.

But more often Vala is concerned with simply harkening to the bid of her Celtic blood. Revelling in the beauty of the natural world. Worshipping within the natural temple of sky and forest and water.

Sharing the mesmerizing enchantment of what the Celts call their ‘welkin’ and the monks deem the ‘vault of heaven.’ If she can stir the children’s own vivid imaginations at the same time, all the better.

So they will spread a blanket on the grass down beside the river where it's quiet and safe and lie back and gaze up. Always somewhere where there is a glimmer of moonlight so Lenni can readily see Vala and Arthur’s lips and follow their comments and they in turn can interpret her gestures. Yet deep enough within the shadows to remain secure from any sudden, hostile forays. Vala being ever mindful that she is newly a widow and Arthur a vulnerable child-chieftain.

Arthur never fails to be beguiled by the extraordinary contrasts. How bright and dazzling the seemingly limitless sky appears during the summer days, stretching to an unbounded horizon, while the sun beams and the clouds move like wads of fluffy sheepskin across its brilliant blue reaches. Come candlelighting though, when he and Vala and Lenni creep outside, the moon glows as if it were a silver-flamed beacon fire and the stars twinkle pisky magic.

Such wonder stills his and Lenni’s breath, making Vala smile at their bewitchment.

Cherished times. Precious memories.

Capricious Rota Fortunae turns.

The gods shiver and shudder and turn aside their faces.

Llud’s family is slain.

Vala awakens to blood on her pillow.

Life cleaves and ruptures.

Eventually though the warp and weft is threaded together again – and now the woven fabric embraces Kai too.

Having a big brother is one of the greatest gifts that will ever be bestowed upon Arthur.

Falling in love with his big brother as a moonsick youth of sixteen summers, while steadfastly assuming the responsibilities of leadership and diligently fostering the dream of a Celtic alliance, will be akin to triumphing in the sword ring after a ferocious contest.

Glorious and grand, yet still fucking alarming.

Especially watching Kai womanize and wolf around for five wanton years.

Then Kai declares his heart.

And Arthur feels as if never need gaze at the sky again.

It’s a feeling so heady that it baffles the wind and tames the tempest.

Because when Kai smiles, he shines. He beams, just like the sun. Radiant and golden.

Kai may not always be the most graceful of men. Indeed, he can sometimes be clumsy and hasty and wildly headlong. He's also one of the most formidable, courageous and skilled warriors in any war band, whether Celt, Saxon or Jute. However, on the inside, he is so soft and tender, so gentle and solicitous that he could indeed be a cloud. The purest whitest cloud that ever there be.

When they couple, Kai is the moon. His big brother glows and glistens and gleams and Arthur is never able to take his eyes away. Even should he want to, albeit he never will. Arthur glides in the tides of Kai’s moon.

And when Arthur comes, Kai is the stars. Pure bliss and sparkling magic and impossibly high.

Up, up, up in the sky.

Clenching around Arthur and bearing his little brother right up there with him.

Both of them floating and flying across the ethereal, strumming summer stars.

Rapture without end.

Strength without dominion.

Winging skywards on love.


End file.
